Scientists are weird people

The nature of doing molecular biology-related things for a living boils down to experiments and, more importantly, timing your experiments correctly so that you don't have to wake up at weird hours to make sure the experiments don't run on too long. Take me, for example. It's 3:35AM, and I am in lab right now, groggy-eyed with a massive craving for In-N-Out that I can't fulfill because it's far too late for that. I came into lab about an hour ago to stop the restriction enzyme digest that I started far too late in the day and consequently forgot about due to Jonathan Sanchez sucking ass against the Dodgers in the 4th inning of today's game. The digestion should have taken only 1-2 hours, meaning I should have come in at around 7pm to stop it, but again, the tears streaming from my eyes watching Sanchez revert to his old form of suckitude blinded me, rendering me unable to operate heavy machinery and vehicular transportation (that, and I just plain fell asleep from a couple of Coors Lights. Laugh away, but I have a job and chances are you don't so HA.)

Now, when I was down at UCLA, going into lab at weird hours and seeing other people there was uncommon but not entirely unexpected - the nature of academic research is a little bit different than corporate. Here, it's pretty much the 8-6 grind, and after around 6:30 or 7, everyone pretty much goes home.

Imagine my surprise, then, to be fumbling around in the kitchen brewing a cup of tea and hearing footsteps coming down the hall.

I froze and slowly turned around. My first thought was that FDU was here already, since he lives relatively close by and is awake at the buttcrack of dawn every day anyway. But even 3AM is a little early for him. Who, then, could it possibly be? The morning cleaning crew? Do we even have a morning cleaning crew?

I came face-to-face with AnimeGirl, one of the quiet but very nice RAs here (okay I don't know if she's actually super into anime but her unique haircut - mostly shoulder length except for some really long hair down the middle back - made me think of it immediately so that's what she'll be from now on until further notice kthxbai).

"Hey." So nonchalant. So natural. As if seeing your co-workers at work at 3AM was the perfectly normal thing to expect.

"Um...hey. What are you doing here?" I immediately regretted asking the question, as I didn't quite know the answer to that question if it were directed towards myself.

"I got here at 6PM, so I'm just about finishing up here."

"Oh okay. Um...I know what this looks like. I swear, I'm not here at 3AM just raiding the fridge for company food - I'm actually doing work but I need a pick-me-up."

I actually finished my work (including updating my lab notebook, something I haven't done for a period of time too embarrassingly long to admit) about an hour ago. Why am I writing right now, then? Because, once again, the long dick of Murphy's Law fucks me in the ass.

Our complex is right next to a big trainyard. Starting around 6 or 7 in the afternoon, they start shuffling the trains around, and this involved moving the trains out into the street such that cars cannot cross. If timed poorly, traffic can get stuck at that intersection for a good fifteen minutes minimum (I've heard up to half an hour from others here, and my heart goes out to them.) Just as I was walking out the door, I heard the obnoxious CLANG CLANG CLANG of the trains shuffling around. The gates were down, the red lights were blinking, and once again, the merciless biology gods above have decided to mess with poor Gordo's sleep schedule some more.

25 days until Cal football.